school garden

school garden

Tuesday 1 November 2011

A touch of gold!

Whilst easing the doors of the greenhouse earlier and removing the debris which had almost jammed the door shut the fabulous colours on the leaves of the pear tree nearby caught the eye.






Before starting work  on the greenhouse the net was set at the bird feeding station as a lot of Goldfinches could be heard in the tree tops.  Four birds were caught straight away.

Juvenile Goldfinch - red head feathers just appearing

Adult female Goldfinch - red feathers stop short of the back of the eye

Adult male goldfinch - red feathers stretch beyond the back of the eye

The bill of the Goldfinch is a wonderful piece of engineering. The bird can extract thistle and teasel seeds with this. As can be seen the tip is very fine with a very delicate point to it. Some of these birds could well be moving to France for the winter. We shall have to wait and see if anybody in France finds one of our 'Holy Trinity' birds

At the back wall there were a few fruits on the passion flower.  The plant responded well to a severe haircut back in the spring.

The Passion Flower





Passion Flower fruit

Finishing on a possible high note. Underneath the Passion Flower a small delicate antler like fungus was spotted.  This is one of the Ramaria type.  An evening with the field guide later is needed to sort this one out and identify the species. Some of these are rather rare!

The Ramaria fungus

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